


A revolution is a simple thing

by CarolinaCreed



Category: Anastasia (1997), Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally
Genre: F/M, Prequel (AU)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-08-02 10:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16303334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarolinaCreed/pseuds/CarolinaCreed
Summary: The price Gleb paid for falling in love with an exiled princess.





	1. Chapter 1

She was his enemy. He knew that, as bolshevik and as a loyal russian.

_The Romanovs were given everything, and gave back nothing! They were paying for all their sins against the russian people and they deserved no mercy._

That's what he'd in mind before he was designed to be one of the guards at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, along with his father.

The first thing he noticed when he watched the Romanovs closely was that, even being prisoners, they were still as proud as they were when they occupied the top of the world.

_Especially her, the youngest daughter._

_She was stubborn and annoying._

She never lowered her head to any of the guards and always ignored orders to stay away from the windows or speak only Russian with her family.

One day, the stubbornness almost cost her life when a guard shot at her direction because she disobeyed an order to move away from one of the windows. The splinters of the glass bruised her delicate face.

The poor guard was fired, of course.

The Romanovs were no longer an imperial family, yet they were still as valuable as they could be before the Revolution, if the command wanted to make some political trade.

Gleb realized that was the first and only time he saw fear in her deep blue eyes.

 _"At least, they have each other,"_ was what Gleb thought when her parents and siblings rushed to rescue her after the incident, embracing and comforting the girl without sparing affection.

In secret, he envied them.

As the time went by, he learned that even in the dificult days, she carried that brightness of life with her, doing her best to bring joy to her family, even improvisational plays - which she staged with her sister, Maria.

He watched some of them, since he was one of the guards working inside the house, and he thought that if she wasn't a former exiled princess, she'd make a really good actress. She had the charm, charisma and beauty needed for the job (not that he was paying so much attention).

Major of the plays were humorous adaptations of classics in literature and most of the time, he had to hold his laughter to avoid giggling along with the audience, composed by members of her family and a few employees.

 _He hated them by his heart for what they did to the russian people, but still ..._ what fault did the children had for Nicholas and Alexandra's mistakes? He couldn’t help feeling a certain sympathy for the sisters, or even for the sick little boy.

When the winter arrived, the things got worse for everyone. The food had grown more rationed and the little bonfire in the main room wasn’t enough to heat them all.

Nicholas was restless, pacing back and forth on the garden of the house, and his eldest daughter, Olga, was becoming more and more melancholy, losing only to her mother. She’d spent all day locked up trying to ease the boy's hemophagic pain.

The only lights were the younger girls, who seemed rather oblivious to the reality they were into.

In that cold day, they seemed to be having fun while chopping wood with some guards. Maria, in particular, liked to flirt with a soldier named Sergey. The other, Anastasia, was more reserved in this sense, but Gleb was sure she was aware of the dirty jokes and unflattering glances that some soldiers were giving her and her sister.

A few hours later, in the same date, a drunk soldier resolved to harass the youngest girl when she was alone, resting under a skeletal oak. She was clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

Gleb was furious. That man were a shame to the revolution’s cause!

Despite being who she was, he’d never let anyone hurt a helpless girl.

As soon as the coward saw him, he ran off. None of them wanted to feel the taste of being reported to Yurovsky for insubordination.

The girl seemed to be more pissed off than afraid. She was tough. He almost laughed at that.

 _“I saw that guard bothering you, Anastasia Nikolaevna. I apologize for myself and for him. Not everyone has what it takes for this job"_ Gleb noticed that one of her wrists was injured and turned purple. He wanted to kill the jerk who did that to her. “I just came here to make sure you're alright.”

 _“Thank you for your concern, I'm fine. You don’t need to apologize...”_ , he suddenly remembered that he hadn't presented himself.

He wasn't sure why, but he was nervous. He’d never addressed one of the family members directly before.

 _“It’s Gleb.”_ He reached out to greet her _. “Gleb Vaganov:”_

She answered with a gentle smile that made his heart race. He was startled by his own reaction and he told himself that it was a stupid, natural attraction just because she was pretty.

They talked for a few minutes on a variety of subjects such as dry weather and even about supplies that would arrive in the following week to fullfil the house.  In the middle of the conversation, she lowered her voice and asked Gleb to get hotter blankets for her brother and he promised her he’d try. She knew it was a risky request, since fraternization between guards and prisoners was forbidden, but she took the risk anyway. He wondered how she couldn't think of herself at a time like that, and suddenly he came to admire the devotion she displayed for her family.

They created a kind of strange friendship after that.

Gleb couldn't stop his eyes searching for her in his duty of guard. And he told himself that the extra concern with the youngest Romanov girl was only part of his job, even if that strange warm feeling came in the pack when he watched her.

Sometimes he caught her looking to him in the same way with that mischievous smile when no one paid attention. From time to time, she tried to provoke him with pranks (which was always unsuccessful because he was very perceptive). That used to left her with an childish anger that made every frustrated prank a bit comical for him.

Gleb was serious, like his father, but she used to provoke his smiles with a facility that he found fascinating and frightening at the same.

In her birthday, he gave her an bar of chocolate and a packet of cigarettes that he kept for a special occasion. He shouldn't done such thing, it was stupid and excessive!

However, he soon forgot his thoughts when he realized how beautiful she was that night. Her blue eyes glowed in a special way when he held her hand, so he thought it would be a good idea to kiss the ex-princess when no one was watching in one of the only corners of the house that wasn't constantly supervised. 

It was extremely risky, and he knew he'd be dead if someone caught them.

She was his enemy, but still ... his mind and heart was in an war. Who could blame him?

 _“I’m sorry, I shouldn't have done that”, he told her before he’d run off,_ in shame.

He tried to avoid her, however was a vain effort and didn’t last long because every time he saw her looking to him, he wanted to kiss her again, and again.

And that's what he did. 

He wondered if it was a curse or a blessing that he'd fallen in love with her so suddenly. 

How could he see her as an enemy?

She looked like an angel personified on earth when she smiled to him.

She was too good for that cruel world.

He knew that if his father found out about them, he'd be ashamed of him. Still, when he was with her, he couldn't think of the consequences.

Gleb said he loved her, even though it was too early. She said she loved him before it was too late.

Every kiss was rushed and intense. There was this feeling between them both that everything would be over as quickly as it began.

He felt like he could touch the stars in the few moments they had in secret at the warehouse.

 _"Don't forget me."_ , she said between their desperated kisses. 

The sentence sounded like a farewell, although he didn't imagine that it would be the last time he'd feel her scent of lavender and the warmth of her skin between his arms. Gleb wanted to be good at words to ask that she kept her hope, but he didn't knew what to say, so he just kissed her again.

He wanted to show her throught his love that he wouldn't be able to forget her even if he wanted to.

One night afterwards, he and his father were summoned to an emergency meeting by Yurovsky.

They were given orders to execute them, one by one. Even the children. Even her.

 _“A revolution is a simple thing, son.”_ His father, Ned Vaganov, told him. _"Sometimes we have to do things that destroy us to change what’s wrong with the world. That's the price to pay for a new order. You'll understand one day, Gleb."_

The task wasn’t mandatory, but many volunteered, including his father.

He couldn’t.

A revolution was a simple thing.

He took a step back, holding the tears.

He wanted to kneel and apologize to God or the devil.

He desperately wanted to search for his Anastasia, to see, hug and kiss her. One last time.

  
Instead, the last memory he had of her, or any other Romanov, was the terrible screams coming from the basement.

He heard the shots, the screams, although the worst part was the silence that came after.

His innocence died with her.

Gleb Vaganov was no longer a boy.

And he learned through the worst way that love is not what a revolution for.


	2. A revolution is not as simple as supposed to be.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It would be a one shot, but I had more ideas for this story, so there will be more chapters :D

It was an autumn afternoon when Gleb Vaganov decided to take a break from his work to walk down the avenue near the Neva River.

Oh, that beautiful city once, ruled by Tsars and aristocrats, called St. Petersburg was the people's Leningrad after the Romanov’s fall. In the new order established by the revolution, they were building a fair and compassionate Russia for everyone and he believed with all his heart on this idea.

When Gleb thought about that, a deep sense of pride took hold of his chest, however, soon ruined by a disquiet that he wished was no longer haunting him.

There wasn't a day that he didn't question himself: "Was it worth it?"

To lose part of himself in the way, to lose _her_... He shook his head to push away that silly thought. Everything he has done and worked on was for something bigger than him or anyone. It was for Russia!

At least that's what he told himself the past nine years since that night. Maybe that was the only way he wouldn't be consumed by guilt.

He tried to distract his mind with the exercise of observation.

The flow of people was intense, as usual in that locality. He let the thin faces go unnoticed by his sharp gaze, but someone stood out in the crowd: a beautiful street sweeper. He'd seen her before, altought he'd never had the guts to approach her.

She was a perfect example for the new regime: honest, strong and hardworking.

He admired her and in some weird way, she looked really familiar to him. Sometimes he would laught to himself for thought something so out of place.

Suddenly, she was scared by a truck backfiring and he instantanaly runned to help her. It seemed the perfect opportunity arranged by fate for him to speak with her.

“It’s was a truck backfiring, comrade”, he calmed her down, noting how much she was shaking. “Those days are over, neighbor against neighbor. There’s nothing to be afraid anymore!”

Gleb, carefully, helped her up from the snow-covered ground.

He was able to better observe her features and he concluded that she was much prettier than he could'v imagined.

Even with that opaque weather, her skin stood out like ivory, her golden hair fell cascading down her back protected by the thick woolen coat, Even her posture, was different.

He was intrigued, because in a crowded space like that, she stood out as ... royalty.

Again, he mentally repressed himself for thinking something so stupid.

“You’re shaking! There’s a tea shop some steps from...” He didn’t finished because the little street sweeper seemed to be suddenly woke up from the numbness caused by fear.

"Thank you!" she said, taking the broom off the ground and turning away to leave quickly.

He grabbed her arm, making sure he was not hurting her, firm enough to hold her in place. That was one of the reflexes acquired with the profession of guard, while he hunted troublemakers by metropolises.

"What’s your hurry?"  he questioned, sounding a little more menacing than he wanted.

Once in a while, he despised being a deputy commissioner.

For the first time he could look to her eyes clearly. They were deep, blue and if she hadn't left so soon, he could have sworn he'd seen those eyes before.

“I can’t lose this job! They’re not easy to come by...”  she smiled gently before she left “But thank you.”

He would be sure it was _her_ smile if she hadn't been dead long ago.

Instinctively, his heart beat faster at the thought of her. He still loved... Anastasia.

And when that girl smiled, he wondered if could be possible.

He didn't believed in miracles, much less on the possibility that one of them had escaped.

He heard the shots and the screamings, but he couldn't stand to stay and dispose their bodies, it was too unbearable. Gleb dashed home cowardly that night.

His father was also embarrassed, he tried to hide for a while, but he saw in his eyes. Until that destroyed him, at last.

Gleb promised that he would be strong for his father, to continue his legacy, even so, the memory terrorizes his dreams every night. Yet, he wishes to go back in time, just to be with her and kiss her with less haste than when they were alone in that warehouse. He knew since the beginning that they would never make love or end toghether in anyway, and that it would only bring pain, but he insisted.

And he should have lived with the consequences of his choices. But still... something drove him back to the street sweeper. A feeling like... hope? He couldn't identify, although he accepted it.

He didn’t think much when he answered back, "I'm here every day!"

A revolution was a simple thing, but not so simple as supposed to be.


End file.
